The ex-Slovak Air Drive MiG-29s ought to be delivered within the subsequent few weeks.

Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger introduced on Mar. 17, 2023, that the Authorities of Slovakia has accepted the switch of 13 MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine. The fight plane will likely be transferred within the subsequent few weeks as a part of the navy assist supplied by Slovakia to Ukraine “to defend itself and the complete Europe towards Russia”.

#Slovak gov. simply accepted sending 13 #MiG29s to #Ukraine! Guarantees have to be saved&when @ZelenskyyUa requested for extra #weapons incl. fighter jets, I stated we’ll do our greatest. Glad others’re doing the identical. #Military assist’s🔑to make sure🇺🇦can defend itself&the complete #Europe towards #Russia

— Eduard Heger (@eduardheger) March 17, 2023

Ukraine has been asking for fighter jets to repel the Russian forces for the reason that starting of struggle last year. On Mar. 16, 2023, Polish President Andrzej Duda confirmed that the primary 4 Polish Air Drive MiG-29s are going to be transferred to Ukraine inside 4-6 weeks. Slovakia has now joined Poland, changing into the primary two international locations to formally decide to delivering Soviet-era MiG-29 Fulcrum fight plane to Kyiv.

The donation of MiGs to Ukraine is a matter that has lengthy been within the works. In April 2022, Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger stated his nation may ship MiG-29 jets to Ukraine, however didn’t elaborate. Later, in early July, he stated Slovakia may ship its Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets and tanks to Ukraine, however once more, the switch didn’t happen. On Feb. 9, 2023, Heger promised that the Slovak authorities would do every little thing doable at hand over fighter jets to Ukraine. Ultimately, he saved his promise.

Once they had been retired in August last year, the Slovak Air Drive operated a fleet of 12 MiG-29 fighter jets within the Air Protection function with the first Fighter Squadron at Sliač Air Base. These are going to get replaced by 14 F-16 Block 70/72 plane ordered in 2018. The primary Vipers had been alleged to arrive within the nation in 2022/23 however are actually scheduled to be delivered within the first half of 2024. To deal with the shortage of fighter jets, the federal government of the Czech Republic accepted the Slovak request for assist to guard Slovak airspace.

Again to the previous Slovak Air Drive MiG-29s, it’s not clear how lengthy it is going to take to make these plane airworthy once more and whether or not any modification will likely be wanted to induct them into lively service with the Ukrainian Air Drive. Nevertheless, what’s sure, is that the Ukrainian pilots will want no additional training to fly these fighters, contemplating the Fulcrums are already being used by the Ukrainian Air Force in varied roles, together with the SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses), because of the integration of the AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile).

Due to this fact, in little a couple of month, the Ukrainian Air Drive ought to get 17 Fulcrums to replenish its inventory and substitute the examples misplaced within the preventing.

David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, masking aviation, protection, struggle, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with totally different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Drive, a personal pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.